On Jan. 27, the Boston Licensing Board voted to approve a proposal by the national liquor retailer Total Wine and Spirts to open for business in what is now an empty storefront in the South Bay Mall. It will fill a 23,000-square-foot hole left empty by OfficeMax.

The proposal to site a “big box store” operation in the one of the city’s largest shopping centers – one that was literally created to house “big box stores” – shouldn’t have been controversial. But it turned into a heated debate, much of it cooked-up by a so-called grassroots group calling itself the “Save Boston Small Businesses Coalition.”

The entity emerged on Facebook last fall, collected signatures, and launched an online petition – all for one objective: to block Total Wine. Some who joined the cause warned that a liquor store too close to the Mass & Cass area was a bad idea. Others claimed, without documentation, that the mall operators had pledged to never allow a liquor store to open there. (Edens, the mall’s owner, emphatically denies that.) On its Facebook page, the “coalition” posted links to news stories seeking to paint the company in a negative light. It also paid for several stories to be presented as “sponsored content” on a South Boston blog that did nothing but smear Total Wine without offering any counterpoints.

The campaign drew some political support. At a November hearing, several city councillors – Frank Baker, Julia Mejia, Michael Flaherty, and the exiting Annissa Essaibi George – and then-acting Mayor Kim Janey all voiced opposition.

For all that, before the board voted unanimously to approve Total Wine’s license last month, board chairperson Kathleen Joyce made it clear that none of those anti- arguments held up to scrutiny. The board, she said, had received “thousands” of signatures both pro and con, but Joyce then raised a pointed question about how they were gathered. She had personally encountered petitions at rival package stores that used over-the-top language suggesting that Total Wine would somehow ruin the neighborhood. She was quick to point out that the Andrew Square Neighborhood Association had backed Total Wine because it was exasperated with two existing package stores in the neighborhood with “deplorable” conditions, including predatory sales of “nips” to the homeless. (Total Wine has pledged not to sell the minibottles at all.) Another board member noted that Total Wine’s opening was in concert with the intent of the Legislature, which in 2017 voted to set aside 15 new licenses for restaurants specifically doing business in South Bay.

After weighing it all, the board made the right call and Total Wine will open in South Bay. And don’t be surprised if that’s the last you ever hear of this supposed “coalition” that was in actuality a front set up by other liquor interests to block a competitor.

Sadly, this “fight” is not completely over, at least not for Councillor Mejia and a few of her colleagues who support an ill-conceived idea to amend the zoning code. They want to ban chain stores from opening “in residential neighborhoods” and “make their development in commercial zones conditional.” This, despite the fact that earlier attempts by city government to enact such broad control over private businesses have already been struck down in multiple court decisions. If we aren’t going to let big-box retailers open up in big-box malls, where should they go exactly?

Why not let Boston consumers decide if they want to patronize a liquor store in the mall or visit one on the nearest corner. Or, call up a delivery app. Time for the council to move on to more pressing matters, you say? Totally.